[363]
to obtain a little freedom, for if my position here is not changed I shall be forced to seek the means of existence elsewhere.
Meantime, extravagant projects present themselves, as is apt to be the case when one is in difficulties.
That of accompanying you to the United States was so tempting, that I am bitterly disappointed to think that its execution becomes impossible in my present circumstances.
All my projects for further publications must also be adjourned, or perhaps renounced. . . . Possibly, when my work on the fossil fishes is completed, the sale of some additional copies may help me to rise again.
And yet I have not much hope of this, since all the attempts of my friends to obtain subscriptions for me in France and Russia have failed: because the French government takes no interest in what is done out of Paris; and in Russia such researches, having little direct utility, are looked upon with indifference.
Do you think any position would be open to me in the United States, where I might earn enough to enable me to continue the publication of my unhappy books, which never pay their way because they do not meet the wants of the world? . . .
This text is part of:
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.